The Violet Fairy Book. Lang, Andrew (Ed.).

First edition, first impression, of the seventh title in the Fairy Books series. Taken from Romanian, Japanese, Swahili, and many other sources, its 35 stories include "The Fairy of the Dawn", "The Goat's Ears of the Emperor Trojan", and "The Princess who was hidden Underground". Henry Justice Ford's (1860-1941) artwork for the series "provided a benchmark in fantasy illustration" (Grolier). Though the Fairy Books are credited to Andrew Lang (1844-1912), he acknowledged in the preface to Lilac (1910) that they "have been almost wholly the work of Mrs [Leonora] Lang, who has translated and adapted them from the French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Catalan, and other languages". Grolier Children's 100, 51. Octavo. Original violet cloth, spine lettered in gilt, spine and front cover blocked in gilt with elaborate floral and fairy motifs within a starry setting, black coated endpapers, edges gilt. Colour frontispiece with tissue guard, 7 colour plates, 25 uncoloured engraved plates, further engravings in the text, all by H. J. Ford. Contemporary gift inscription on half-title; blind stamp of bookseller William Allan of Middlesborough on rear free endpaper recto. Slight rubbing to cloth, the gilt unaffected and notably bright, faint mark to copyright and dedication pages, occasional foxing elsewhere. A very good copy.